RJ Sheperd
@rjsheperd.com
820 followers 2.7K following 780 posts
Sentient human interested in all things Cycling / Transit / Cities / Decentralized Web / Lisp / Clojure / Geospatial. 📍 Portland, OR Check out: #RailSky #WalkNRoll #PDXBikes #BikeBus #Transit #YIMBY #DWeb #Clojure #GIS #maps
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rjsheperd.com
#HB2025 funding for roads, transit & rail needs your help! If you or people you know live in the Oregon Coast or Eastern Oregon, please ask contact these legislators: Sen. Todd Nash, Sen Suzanne Weber, and Sen. Dick Anderson.
Reposted by RJ Sheperd
chittimarco.bsky.social
Interesting video on the installation of ballast-less tracks on prefab slabs at Roma Termini. A first of its kind in Italy for a surface station.

youtu.be/g4hIzknVchA?...
FAST System Installation - Track Renewal at Roma Temini railway station
YouTube video by Salcef Group
youtu.be
Reposted by RJ Sheperd
dave.bzky.team
You probably cannot afford a car, and you almost certainly can't afford not to have one. This is the definition of a policy failure.
nondriver.bsky.social
AAA estimates the average cost of owning a car is $12,297 a year, and recommends drivers spend no more than 10 percent of their income on car costs. This means you should make 120K to afford the average cost. Median *household* income in the US is $77K. The math just doesn't work.
Reposted by RJ Sheperd
amendez.bsky.social
Getting to zero fatal crashes is possible. Bend is 51 days away from a full twelve months with no fatal crashes on our public roadways. That's down from a high of 7 in 2023 and 5 in 2024.

This is great progress and we've got to keep it up.
A screenshot of a Bend Police Data Hub showing MVA (motor vehicle accident) w/ Fatality call type has zero calls. The square in the middle shows a map of the city of Bend and the border shows a variety of data filters available.
Reposted by RJ Sheperd
parkingreform.org
So far in 2025, 11 cities have clearly signaled that the era of mandatory parking is coming to an end! 🎉

parkingreform.org/mandates-map/
A table titled "Cities That Abolished Parking Mandates in 2025". It lists cities and the dates they removed mandatory parking requirements. The cities are Toledo, OH (Sep 9); Oak Forest, IL (Aug 26); Shoreline, WA (Aug 11); Denver, CO (Aug 5); Boulder, CO (Jul 24); Botnell, WA (Jul 8); Bremerton, WA (Jun 4); Fairview, OR (Jun 4); Franklin, WI (May 6); Fitchburg, WI (Apr 8); and Sherbrooke, QC (Apr 8).
Reposted by RJ Sheperd
yegbike.bsky.social
All the more reason to build safe, well connected, and reliably available cycling and public transit networks.
davidzipper.bsky.social
For the first time, the avg new car costs >$50,000. www.cnbc.com/2025/10/13/n...

It's making more and more sense for families to use a relatively cheap e-bike or golf cart in lieu of a 2nd or 3rd car. Detroit should be nervous.
Why car companies should fear the golf cart
Automakers are churning out vehicles that are bigger and more expensive—but that might soon reach a breaking point.
www.fastcompany.com
rjsheperd.com
Does this mean the entire line from LA to SD will be electrified as well?
Reposted by RJ Sheperd
nondriver.bsky.social
AAA estimates the average cost of owning a car is $12,297 a year, and recommends drivers spend no more than 10 percent of their income on car costs. This means you should make 120K to afford the average cost. Median *household* income in the US is $77K. The math just doesn't work.
Reposted by RJ Sheperd
Reposted by RJ Sheperd
chuckwendig.bsky.social
This is why the inflatable costumes works so well -- it works the same way calling them "weird" or "creepy" did. It disrupts their narrative, and makes them seem pathetic rather than cool-and-cruel.
cwebbonline.com
You need to see this:

“The show of force is the point. They want these images to be out…The Department of Homeland Security is walking around Chicago with a film crew.” @jacobsoboroff.bsky.social
Reposted by RJ Sheperd
stano.bsky.social
Now that SB 79 has passed, hopefully it changes incentives for transit agencies to redevelop the land they hold for surface parking near stations. Just rode past Pomona North and saw that Metro added a new surface lot to compliment Metrolink's existing one.
Reposted by RJ Sheperd
niedermeyer.online
Elon Musk is a white nationalist. Anyone who needs more data points to reach this conclusion is beyond help or persuasion.

If you buy, rent, service, or supercharge a Tesla you are supporting the most powerful white nationalist on earth. Period.
Reposted by RJ Sheperd
jasonthorne.bsky.social
Toronto’s Cycling and Pedestrian Projects Team continues to hit it out of the park. Out for a ride today and here’s just some of the new cycling facilities that I came across. New concrete planters and permanent curbs on Harbord Street. /1
Reposted by RJ Sheperd
andersem.bsky.social
"About a third of the units stand vacant, and many require extensive repairs to get them into good enough condition that a bank will approve a mortgage."

Seems like many of these 66 lots could become hundreds of new below-market or mixed-income 6plex homes.

www.oregonlive.com/business/202...
A Portland housing nonprofit is selling dozens of its rentals. Low-income tenants could be the buyers
Tenants of Reach Community Development’s “scattered site” portfolio will receive up to $12,000 in either down payment or relocation assistance.
www.oregonlive.com
Reposted by RJ Sheperd
obcycler.bsky.social
Don't make us tap the sign.
Safety control hierarchy
Reposted by RJ Sheperd
brenttoderian.bsky.social
How microplastics may be reshaping our bodies and minds.

“The particles are in our blood, brains and guts – and scientists are only beginning to learn what they do.”

Microplastics like those from car tires. The bigger and heavier the vehicle, the more microplastics shed.
The plastic inside us: how microplastics may be reshaping our bodies and minds
The particles are in our blood, brains and guts – and scientists are only beginning to learn what they do
www.theguardian.com
Reposted by RJ Sheperd
bikeportland.org
Amazing Emergency Naked Ride. Here’s the moment thousands of riders rolled through the protests at the ICE facility and cheers erupted. 😮💯
rjsheperd.com
Ah, damn.

CA transit agencies will be continue to be doomed to use regressive sales taxes to expand rail.
rjsheperd.com
The real question we should be asking: can we get the Purple Line to be funded through a Land-Value Capture scheme now that SB 79 is law?

MTS needs to think like Japan Rail:
1. Buy land around station
2. Builds stations
3. Lease the land for income-generation to fund the build-out
4. Repeat
Reposted by RJ Sheperd
acbowen.bsky.social
San Diego is preparing 2 community plan updates impacted by SB79: Clairemont and College. These are my rough sketches of the half-mile radii around trolley stops. Yellow is where the city wanted to keep single-family zoning.

Past coverage:
www.kpbs.org/news/local/2...
www.kpbs.org/news/quality...
Reposted by RJ Sheperd
thebulwark.com
George was just trying to get to work.

ICE pepper-sprayed him, dragged him from his car, locked him in a detention center, and placed him on suicide watch. He even missed his young daughter’s birthday in the process.

This man is a veteran and American citizen. Don't look away.
thebulwark.com
"They put me on suicide watch and they put me in the cell, I'm naked, in like a hospital dress and just a concrete bed with like a mattress, like a thin mattress and, they leave the light on 24/7."

@timmiller.bsky.social talked to a veteran who ICE wrongly detained and brutalized